Daydream will be back. Axon 7 development is still ongoing

[GodOfPsychos]

I wrote an email to the chief technical officer of ZTE and asked if development for the Axon 7 is still ongoing. Here is a screenshot of the answer.

 

[MishaalRahman]

Can you link exactly who you wrote to? I would like to confirm this.

 

[GodOfPsychos]

Can you link exactly who you wrote to? I would like to confirm this.

Pm for now to avoid possible email spamming.

As for all the others who read this, here is a little more explanation:
He is the technical chief officer of zte and stands in direct contact with the dev team. He is also the reason we got the zip for disabling system write protection in the first place. Without him i wouldn't have gotten the update.zip (with disabled system write protection) and @raystef66 couldn't have made a flashable zip for us.

 

[amphi66]

Great contact! Thanks.

Anyway to get the PIE IMS so we can get wifi calling working on Oreo or Pie?

 

[Predatorhaze]

Great contact! Thanks.

Anyway to get the PIE IMS so we can get wifi calling working on Oreo or Pie?

Volte works on Oreo china

 

[HunterBlade]

Great contact! Thanks.

Anyway to get the PIE IMS so we can get wifi calling working on Oreo or Pie?

VoLTE should work on any of the big Oreo ROMs. WFC is hit or miss (even on stock ROM). I'm assuming Oreo is gonna be the last android version we can install and still have these things work (unless some dev out there finds a way to get past this roadblock in the future). Either way, I kinda doubt ZTE would provide any further updates for us beyond Oreo. I'm assuming that the response given in the OP meant that they would fix everything that's still broken and missing on 8.0; not begin development for Pie (especially since the Axon 10 is just around the corner, pulling resources into a 3-year-old phone just isn't a sound decision from a business standpoint).

 

[dm68]

pulling resources into a 3-year-old phone just isn't a sound decision from a business standpoint).

It is if ZTE expect some form of customer loyalty on future purchase decisions. Would you buy the Axon 10/11/12 etc. based on your Axon 7 experience? Yes they had disruptions from trade sanctions etc. but that's not the consumers fault and imo ZTE should be doing everything they can to restore faith in their brand.

 

[RobboW]

They're basically starting again.
They need an affordable flagship like the Axon 7 was. If they don't, it will be hard to gather enough sales to start a customer pool and try for return purchase later on.

Current customers are wary, sceptical and untrusting after that whole fiasco and rightly so.

 

[shoman94]

Great contact! Thanks.

Anyway to get the PIE IMS so we can get wifi calling working on Oreo or Pie?

VoLTE nd Wifi calling wok fine for me on ZTE's Oreo B20.

 

[TorqueSsS]

They're basically starting again.
They need an affordable flagship like the Axon 7 was. If they don't, it will be hard to gather enough sales to start a customer pool and try for return purchase later on.

Current customers are wary, sceptical and untrusting after that whole fiasco and rightly so.

They just need to copy and paste the Axon 7 with newer specs.
Maybe bumping it to 6" in order to have more internal space would do the trick.

I still can't understand how did they think that the Axon 9 Pro was a good idea. They litterally took all that was great about the A7 and...deleted it.

Now...a bit of an on topic question. Instead of releasing 8.0, could they not enter the Android One program with it...especially since they were aiming for stock experience?
Maybe it's been asked before, but what are the implications of entering the AO program,because IIRC, I may have read some time ago something about a partition not existing on the device and ZTE not gambling with a large release, but I can't remember specifically?

 

[Choose an username...]

They just need to copy and paste the Axon 7 with newer specs.
Maybe bumping it to 6" in order to have more internal space would do the trick.

I still can't understand how did they think that the Axon 9 Pro was a good idea. They litterally took all that was great about the A7 and...deleted it.

Now...a bit of an on topic question. Instead of releasing 8.0, could they not enter the Android One program with it...especially since they were aiming for stock experience?
Maybe it's been asked before, but what are the implications of entering the AO program,because IIRC, I may have read some time ago something about a partition not existing on the device and ZTE not gambling with a large release, but I can't remember specifically?

The vendor partition stuff is something else entirely. Some people believed that ZTE would bring Treble support to the Axon while that made very little sense (Treble is a requirement for phones that SHIP with Oreo and above, but it's optional for Oreo, and its main advantage is it makes it easier for OEMs to update major Android versions). It was developed by djkuz and NFound eventually anyways, but only because of the generic ROM benefits

I don't think you can simply slap Android One certification on the middle of a product's life, but even if they could, it would make absolutely zero sense for them... Why be commited to security updates and newer Android versions on a phone that has surely stopped giving any revenue since long ago? Plus I'm not even sure if people prefer stock Android to stuff like One UI where you have a bunch of options

 

[dodo34]

Do not expect to much from ZTE for the Axon 7. Until now they did not release a stable OS and it will not change for the next update.

 

[Choose an username...]

Do not expect to much from ZTE for the Axon 7. Until now they did not release a stable OS and it will not change for the next update.

Marshmallow and Nougat were perfectly stable, if not the chinese versions. i'd say that counts.

The important thing is them fixing Daydream because it doesn't only entail adding daydream back, to run it properly you need to have thermals and the kernel properly tuned. Daydream should put the phone at ~1.3 GHz but I believe they'll have to mess around to make it work as intended anyways

plus all this is useful for LOS

 

[dodo34]

Marshmallow and Nougat had a very bad design and UI because of mifavor. Oreo is nice but extremly unstable.

 

[gpz1100]

Do not expect to much from ZTE for the Axon 7. Until now they did not release a stable OS and it will not change for the next update.

What next update?

I thought this device was EOL as far as zte was concerned. There hasn't been an official update since august of last year and that had a security update of july '18. That's 6+ months ago. I think we're on our own now....

 

[Choose an username...]

What next update?

I thought this device was EOL as far as zte was concerned. There hasn't been an official update since august of last year and that had a security update of july '18. That's 6+ months ago. I think we're on our own now....

how can you ignore the OP this much??
??

seriously, read the OP first

Also, the chinese version still gets updates, the last one was abt 2 weeks ago?

 

[gpz1100]

how can you ignore the OP this much??
??

seriously, read the OP first

Also, the chinese version still gets updates, the last one was abt 2 weeks ago?

Not ignoring OP at all... Simply going by zte's past actions. I've seen these sort of promises with other devices (moto x pure comes to mind) in the past. I'll believe it when I see it.

Got a link to this update from 2 weeks ago? What was the actual update?

 

[Choose an username...]

Not ignoring OP at all... Simply going by zte's past actions. I've seen these sort of promises with other devices (moto x pure comes to mind) in the past. I'll believe it when I see it.

Got a link to this update from 2 weeks ago? What was the actual update?

All I'm saying is, @GodOfPsychos contacted this ZTE guy, he said that an update was going to be released, and then XDA'S EDITOR IN CHIEF contacted that guy and got the same response (with which an article was made). They can bail at any time, but it's not like they are promising Pie anyways

I'm guessing you can't see the attached screenie in the OP? I can see it just fine from XDA Labs

 

[RobboW]

We won't get official Android Pie for Axon 7.


The most I read into that is update to include cut out features like Daydream, probably a security update too. Just a finish of what Oreo 8.0 was supposed to be. I don't think we will even see official Oreo 8.1

 

[pickypenelope]

If they had just kept with the whole "best sounding phone" idea I'd probably already have bought another ZTE. It was the thing that distinguished them in the crowded market of samey-same phones. At this point I'm clinging to my Axon 7 with my tight little hands, and any update to its stability will be appreciated. [Full disclosure, I'm running the GSI Liquid Remix unofficial build of Pie, but if they do update the official Oreo and get it rock solid, I could see downgrading just to be on an official ROM.]